The Role of Economics in Health Care - Essay Example

The Economics of Health Care In recent years health care financing has become an increasingly more difficult dilemma for public policymakers. Current health care economics generally restricts its attention to the values of efficiency and individual preference satisfaction, and moreover assumes that the market and an exchange-based organization of health care will resolve complex social issues regarding who shall have what health care.( John B. Davis 2001) The modern medical markets have developed in such a way that any economical change will almost certainly effect middle and lower class population in the negative way. The increased availability of more effective medical care programs have changed expectations about what physicians could do and highly increased the demand for medical services while simultaneously increasing the price of these services. The one indication of this change is a reproductive medicine, which clearly shows a direct link between economic issues and health care. Role of Economics in Health Care Economics provide results for the available options in health care, by providing tool for analysis of total costs and benefits, and on the other hand marginal costs and advantages of specific decisions. By using marginal analysis, economics assist in allocating resources properly among alternatives. Economics tells us about the relative costs and advantages of the alternatives. (Fuchs, 1974) Economics may play a role in multiple births. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on both the couple and the physician to transfer a large number of embryos on one occasion, because the couple only has enough financing for one IVF attempt. The risk of putting all your eggs in one basket is the chance that many of them might hatch. The result may be that the financially strapped couple attempting to have one baby becomes a financially depleted family, with more than one baby to raise for the rest of their lives. One way physicians can reduce their patients temptation to pack multiple embryos into one IVF cycle is to ensure that cycle involves a good cleaving embryo. Freezing a good embryo yields decent pregnancy results. Even though many consumers cannot afford health insurance. Two solutions have been studied to control health care demand. One is when the government steps in to change health care providers without involving the consumer. The government could put all hospitals on a budget to keep unnecessary buying down. The other solution is patient power which the consumers are to have a medical savings to use just on medical expenses. For the health care market to be efficient benefits and cost must be balanced. StuStudies have been conducted over the course of the past several decades, focusing on substantial increases in health care costs in direct correlation to particular medical procedures and fields. Among these procedures and fields are child birth, radiation therapy, coronary bypass surgery, nuclear medicine and cancer treatments. For example, the innovation of cesarean sections used during problematic child deliveries have increased healthcare costs. The various medical personnel must all be compensated for their time and labor: the! anesthesiologists, the surgeon, the nurses, etc. The Hospitals A generation ago, most hospitals, in particular community hospitals had some kind of affiliation with a religious order. They were nonprofit, charitable organizations, and while their mission was to tend to the sick, they did so with one eye on this world and the other on the world to come. Visiting one of these old hospitals was a unique experience. Nobody can build his own hospital, or educate his own nurses and doctors. In a mature community, the cost of such infrastructure, training and extra capacity must be shared. The goal is to create a normal, non medical living arrangement for the aged and to offer the added convenience of being close to the hospital and physicians offices. This puts hospitals in direct competition with nursing homes. There are approximately 18,000 deaths annually as a direct result of lack of insurance, according to the Institute of Medicine. In addition, this issue impacts our community through increased health care costs. As a result of not having health insurance, children and adults often seek care in the most costly setting — the emergency department. (Judith and Ann Karam, 2007) Use Of New Technology As prominent researchers and economic analysts have discovered, there is a distinct and direct correlation between advancing medical technologies and rising health care costs. Medical innovation has been proven time and again to be an important determinant of health care cost growth. Use of new technology increases the cost of health care; on the other hand this new technology is making people living long and healthy life, such as transplant technology. Poorer people, have statistically worse health and consequently greater medical needs. But one thing should be noted that Aggressive treatment only prolongs life; it does not improve it. In caring about this full, real, low-income person whose liver fails, what should one want? The morally most sensitive caring would seem to involve an imaginative process in which one puts oneself in his or her shoes. But once one takes that crucial step, the case for equality of care is destroyed. If one really were the patient and could control the use of the accessible resources, one certainly would not include liver transplants in ones chosen health plan. So is one uncaring if one concludes that society need not fund this particular expensive technology? Pre reflectively, yes, this is uncaring, but reflectively it is not. Decisions to use or forgo expensive care still represent important occasions for conservation of valuable resources. One of the more common sorts of situation involves hospital intensive care. The British, for example, use it at less than a fifth the frequency of Americans. If Americans could use it even marginally less frequently, medical costs could be reduced by billions of dollars. Ethics, culture, values and a constitution Cultural values give an individual a sense of direction as well as meaning to life. Economic issues affect many decisions that are essentially ethical in nature. There is a growing recognition within economics that we cannot continue to ignore the moral or ethical foundations of our discipline. In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), in particular, presents one such ethical dilemma. For example, economics influence the number of IVF attempts that a couple may undergo. Consequently, a couples financial status may affect a physicians judgment on how many embryos to transfer. Conclusion Finally, and hopefully, through the serious economic analysis our nation will be able to see more efficient health care market, which can benefit both consumer and provider without limiting access to care for low income consumers. The most importantly, we as a future health care leaders, should rebuild our health care and economic system in more appropriate and efficient way to benefit our nation, because if we are not going to do that, nobody will. Our health care system must provide: 1. Increased coverage for the uninsured and underinsured. 2. Reduction in costs. 3. Increased profitability to continue to draw talented people. 4. Increased care quality Health care costs have been rising, and now somewhere between thirty-seven and thirty-nine million Americans are widely said to be without medical care coverage (Stelzer, 2006). We need to keep the best of our existing standards of medical care and extend it to all citizens without turning to the government to pay for and control the whole system. But we also need to reduce the veritable hemorrhage of medical costs.( Caspar W. Weinberger, 1992) Health care demands have often been considered infinite. Although this may be an exaggeration, in today’s environment it is obvious that wants are greater than the resources available to meet them. Therefore, choices must be made between competing wants, and decisions must be made about which wants will be met and which will be left unmet. Economics provides an efficient mechanism for making those decisions. Works Cited Fuchs, V.R. (1974). Who shall live? HeO1th economics, and social dhoice. New York: Basic Books, Inc. John B. Davis - editor. Publisher: Routledge. Book Title: The Social Economics of Health Care..Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 2001. Karam, Judith Ann Crains Cleveland Business; 5/21/2007, Vol. 28 Issue 20, p12-12, 1/3p Stelzer, Irwin M. “America’s Health Care System Is Not in Crisis.” Health and Fitness. 1996. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. George Walton Academy Library, Monroe, GA. 21 March 2006. Weinberger, C.W. Forbes; 2/3/92, Vol. 149 Issue 3, p35-35, 1p, 2c Read More